Quake 4, HL2 Aftermath: First Shots Fired

For those of you whose necks don't turn more than half an inch left or right of centre, and whose eyes tunnel straight to the point without worrying about what's going on in the periphery - in other words, for those of you who haven't bothered looking at the news column today - you'll be interested to learn that screenshots of both Quake IV and Half-Life 2: Aftermath have now emerged. One of each.

Which is good news for PC first-person shooter fans who've been sitting around twiddling their gigabytes since Half-Life 2 concluded. The first shot of Half-Life 2: Aftermath, which appears to feature skeletal enemies wrapped in toilet paper, along with some vague details suggesting that Gordon Freeman will be the lead and speculating on when it'll come out, can be found here.

Quake IV, meanwhile, is off on another planet here, in a story that also brings word that our Strogg-flavoured trip back through the bio-mechanical wonders of foreign worlds will be suffering at the hands of a Matthew Kane of "Rhino Squad", who will also get to drive around in vehicles. Be sure to check out the screenshot link too for a view of a nasty looking flesh-stretched-over-metal sort of chap, or Frankenstein's Darth Sideous, as we've dubbed him around the office.

Naturally, we'll be doing our utmost to report on both titles if and when we clap eyes on them at this year's E3, which kicks off on May 18th.